P3: Days of Friendship
by KronosFireZeroOne
Summary: Minato Arisato has saved the world from the Fall. Having given up his life for his friends, the woman he loves, and the android he cared for like a daughter, he was content. But something happened. Something wrong.


My name is Minato Arisato.

I am not normal.

Far from it. But then again, who is?

But I bet there aren't many people who can summon a manifestation of their true selves by shooting themselves in the head with a gun.

…That must've caught you off guard.

Anyway, I was capable of doing that. I had this power called 'Persona.' I could summon what was basically a representation of my true inner self by, as I'd said earlier, pointing a gun to my head and pulling the trigger.

Okay, I was exaggerating. It wasn't a real gun. It was something called an Evoker.

And it was given to me by the people I considered to be the greatest friends I'd ever known in my life.

You see, I was a member of this covert club at the school I'd transferred into months before called S.E.E.S. The people there, save one mullet-wearing monster, were able to summon Personas, like me.

We were all assigned to hunt down and annihilate monsters that would come out at a certain time period, called the Dark Hour, which took place in between 11:59 PM and 12:00 AM, yet somehow lasted for an entire hour, hence the name. The monsters we were sent to fight were called Shadows, predatory blobs of mass that threatened to eat away at peoples' psyches.

All my teammates could only summon one Persona. I could summon a dozen. At a time. My skill was so undeniably amazing that I was elected field leader of S.E.E.S., leading my team through thick and thin, growing closer to them at an astounding rate.

There were my senpai, Mitsuru Kirijo, wielder of the Persona Artemisia, red-haired student council president, former heir to the Kirijo Corp (now owner), and Akihiko Sanada, host to the Persona Caesar, protein junkie, and champion of the boxing team.

There was also Junpei Iori, host to the Persona Trismegistus, my perverted best friend, who'd always wear a baseball cap which I don't think he's ever washed (eeegh).

Fuuka Yamagishi, host to the Persona Juno, a teal-haired tech addict, and…admittedly horrible cook, but still a very kind girl at heart.

Ken Amada, wielder of Kala Nemi, a precocious 12-year-old that drinks milk despite his lactose intolerance in the hopes that he'd get taller.

Koromaru, an adorable little pup who could summon a Persona called Cerberus.

Aigis, an android that-_who_ could summon a Persona called Pallas Athena.

And…last but not least, Yukari Takeba, the wielder of Isis.

She was…a girl I never thought I'd care for as much as I did.

For one thing, she was loud. Embarrassingly so. She was also a deadpan snarker, always coming up with some offensive quip to put someone (namely Junpei) down. In fact, she had such abrupt mood swings that you'd feel whiplashed just talking to her.

One minute, she'd be happy, the next, she'd be mad as all hell…

…And I loved her more than life itself.

But I can't concentrate on her now…as much as I'd want to.

I'm busy facing Nyx. The mother of Shadows…the offspring of Night…the sibling of Death.

I was face-to-face with the goddess of death, no, not just a goddess, the _very essence_ of death.

And to think, I thought this would be a normal year…and here I am, fighting what has to be the greatest, and costliest, battle of my life.

I had gained the power of the Universe just minutes earlier. A companion of mine, Igor, who had resided in a realm deep within the human psyche (don't ask, I've explained far too much already) had awakened my eyes to this power, which had been built up and forged from the relationships I'd established with people this past year.

_A lot of people._

And Nyx and I battled. We were both gods on a plane of mortals, she, a god of darkness, I, a god amongst man itself. But I was on the losing side.

Nyx continually tossed wave after wave of deadly blast after deadly blast, injuring me beyond belief, almost rendering me completely hopeless to embrace the quiet of death.

But then I heard them.

"_Is there nothing we can do?"_

Ken's voice stirred up a force from inside me.

"_Don't give up!"_ I heard Akihiko yell. _"We have to believe in him!"_

"_Give him strength!" _That was Mitsuru. _"Take my life if you must!"_

I rose to my feet, a new determination welling up within my heart and soul.

I wasn't about to let Nyx or her Shadow brood bring harm to my friends any longer.

Nyx attacked again…but it didn't hit me, luckily.

"_Yeah!" _Yukari cried out, bringing tears to my eyes. _"I'm willing to risk mine, too!"_

"_He's going to face it all by himself!"_ Fuuka said, shuddering.

"_No, he's not alone!" _Junpei yelled, demandingly so. _"I won't let him die!"_

Power swelled within my veins as I remembered just who I was fighting for. My friends. Every single one of them.

_"I will not allow this world to be destroyed!"_ Aigis' words were my exact thoughts.

_*BARK!* _Koromaru barked as a form of cheering, as my eyes stared Nyx right in the face, tears endlessly flowing out in joy.

_"Alright..."_ Shinji? _"Let's do this."_

...Yeah. Let's.

* * *

"Don't worry..."

* * *

Aigis's eyes were dripping-no, pouring tears. I never even knew robots could shed tears. But then again, Aigis was no robot.

Out of everyone I'd gotten to know throughout this past year...she was the one who'd grown the most.

That's almost a given, considering that she started off as an emotionless...well, robot, but now has become a fully-emotional, driven, dedicated, and almost...lovely woman.

Throughout all this time, the most conflicting feelings I've ever felt towards anyone were directed towards her.

At first, I thought her very existence to be pretty ridiculous. Robots, in this generation. And yet, as time passed, I'd grown to care about her. She was adorable in how innocent she was...in how child-like she acted. She was like a daughter to me. However, it was clear she had _very_ different feelings towards me.

For one thing, she would cling onto me for days, like some deranged jealous girlfriend, except without being crazy or jealous, heeding my every word, following my every order, and following me wherever I'd go in the hopes that she'd protect me.

That's what she always wanted to do. Protect me. For months, I couldn't figure out why.

And then, at November of last year, I finally did.

When I was a child, she'd implanted Death...no, Ryoji Mochizuki, one of my dearest friends, inside my head. He got out ten years later, unfortunately. However, feeling guilty over her actions and seeking to atone for them, she decided to be by my side and defend me from anything that tries to bring me to harm.

Her regret was too much for me to ignore.

She became one of my closest companions. I began to care for her more than I ever did before.

But Yukari still held a place in my heart too big for me to simply cast aside.

Yukari, like me, had lost both of her parents to the Shadows (in her case, it was in an indirect manner). I never really thought that much about her at first. She seemed like a hassle to be with, always getting angry over little things, easily getting stirred...but something about her tugged at my heart.

She told me things she would never tell anyone...on what was practically the first day we met. No, wait, third. Or was it fourth?

She'd told me about her father's tragic death, her mother's willing boy-chasing, and her lack of knowledge about the whole situation concerning the Shadows.

Then she said, _"Thanks for listening...I've been waiting to tell that to someone for a long time."_

...That made me care about her all the more, and I didn't even realize it at the time.

However, Yakushima was when my feelings for her had reached full circle.

She had broken down into an emotional mess after having been fooled by that bastard Ikutsuki that her father had caused the Shadows to break loose into the world. She was a sight too tragic to behold without at least feeling some emotion weighing down onto your heart.

I comforted her as best I could, even giving her an embrace which she didn't seem to mind (or did she?). And, at that moment...I felt like it was my duty to protect her.

Just as Aigis had promised to defend me from harm, I had promised myself, internally, mind you, that I would always be there for Yukari. No matter what.

She was a little hesistant about it as well...she was quite fidgety during our 'dates' following Yakushima. She even got angry at me once for rescuing her from a pack of lechers who had stolen her wallet.

But she had returned my feelings, nonetheless.

_"I-I'm only gonna say this once, alright?"_

She was so cute when she told me that.

_"I...love you."_

I responded in kind.

_"I love you too, Yukari."_

I remember hugging her just as how I did back at Yakushima, her face redder than a beet as I wrapped my arms around her.

* * *

...Heh.

It's pretty funny...remembering my girlfriend just as I'm about to die.

"...I'll stay right here with you..." Aigis said, still crying. "Don't worry...I'll always be by your side...protecting you."

Goodbye...Aigis.

Goodbye...Yukari.

Goodbye...everyone.

My lips cracked into a smile as I faded away from the mortal plane.

* * *

I awoke in a place I remembered seeing back when I battled Nyx.

The sea of souls.

I was chained by what looked and felt like barbed wire, to a door...a seal which held back Nyx, goddess of Death.

Wait, no...it wasn't meant to hold Nyx back.

It was meant to hold _it_ back.

The manifestation of all of humanity's desire to die.

I call it Erebus.

Erebus was a monster, two-headed, dripping reddish-brown puddles of murky ooze from it's abdomen, drooling gusts of brown smoke and glaring at me with red eyes, snorting and growling in anger as one of its brown hands had gripped me in a tight lock in an attempt to pry me off the seal.

But it was no use. The power of the Universe was far too strong. It kept it from even touching Nyx.

I doubted, for a time, anything could possibly remove me from my duty.

But then something did.

**"Such a pitiful waste of the Universe..."**

I tried to look around, in a vain attempt to find whoever was mouthing off to me. I couldn't find him.

**"The Elder Gods had been searching for this power for more than millenia, and a mortal attains it? No, a child attains it!? Hah! How hilarious."**

Who was this guy? He sounded like...like...

...A Shadow.

**"Now, it's mine."**

...What is this stinging feeling in my back?

**"The Fall has begun again, mortal..."**

Wait, WHAT!?

No...no! The wires are coming loose!

NO! I WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN!

**"SQUIRM, MORTAL! SQUIRM!"**

NO-!

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

* * *

In tribute to CipherPrinceofDreams' excellent _Days of Autumn_ and _Days of Summer_ fanfics, and inspired by NightlyPresence, I have begun a new _Days of_ series! Hope you like it!

THIS IS NOT CANON TO _THE ALTERNITY PARADOX_. AT ALL. HENCE THE REASON WHY THE NAME 'MINATO ARISATO' IS USED, NOT 'MAKOTO YUKI.'


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